FS-2025-0001-587381

**The comment deadline is today, October 6, 2026.** Comments on the proposed rule, *Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation* (91 FR 53827), must be received by October 6, 2026. You can submit at Regulations.gov, where the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement are posted. Here's a draft: --- **Re: Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation (91 FR 53827) – Opposition to Rescission** I'm writing to oppose the full rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I live in Turlock, California, and I work and play across the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra foothills, including Tuolumne County. The water, air, and wildlife that people in my community depend on start in these forests. The Forest Service says rescission is about wildfire. But the Roadless Rule already allows thinning and fuels work where it's needed. Its restrictions are on new roads and commercial logging. Building new roads into backcountry also brings more human ignitions, and the agency already struggles to maintain the roads it has. Adding more miles isn't a fire strategy. Our valley depends on clean, reliable water from Sierra watersheds. Roadless areas keep erosion and sediment out of the rivers that feed our reservoirs and irrigation systems. Handing roadless decisions to forest-by-forest planning, with no national floor, puts that at risk. I'm also concerned about the process. The original rule had more than 600 public hearings. This proposal had a 30-day comment period, later extended by 15 days, for a rule covering tens of millions of acres. That is not enough time for the public to review a draft EIS and a rule of this size. I ask the Forest Service to retain the 2001 Roadless Rule, to select a no-action alternative in the final EIS, and to respond individually to the substantive concerns raised in the record. Thank you for considering my comment. Andria Hernandez Turlock, CA